In this talk Roger Luckhurst discusses how the Gothic genre in the 19th century moved steadily from the wild and exotic margins into the streets of the metropolis. Starting with Dickens, this new urban Gothic culminates with Stevenson's Mr Hyde in his Soho lair and Count Dracula in Piccadilly, at the very heart of the empire. The talk also considers the recent London Gothic revival, looking at work by Kim Newman, Christopher Fowler, Conrad Williams and Iain Sinclair.

Roger Luckhurst is Professor in Modern and Contemporary Literature at Birkbeck. As well as writing books on subjects such as J. G. Ballard, telepathy, and science fiction, he has edited Late Victorian Gothic Tales and Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for Oxford World's Classics, and is currently researching late Victorian and Edwardian mummy curses in London.